Causal Understanding: Empirical and Theoretical Foundations for a New Approach

A Four-Year Interdisciplinary Project, 2004-2008

Sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Causal thinking plays a pivotal role in our understanding of our surroundings in almost all contexts - physical, psychological, moral, social, and historical. Given its importance, it is not surprising that questions about causal knowledge and causal reasoning have become a particular focus of attention in recent psychology. Much of the work in this area draws heavily on philosophy in formulating competing models for testing causal understanding. However, the interpretation of findings obtained so far, as well as the development of new empirical research paradigms, are hampered by the lack of a common focus between philosophers and psychologists. The 2004-08 Project on Causal Understanding aimed to address this problem by bringing together philosophers and psychologists to try and devise a substantive theoretical and empirical framework within which to conduct research on the nature of causal understanding... [from the Project Statement]